Introducing X’ theory:

Heads, complements, specifiers

 Back to the story of constituents
• What is the constituent structure of the
following sentence?

The students like her lectures.

 Trees, hierarchy, and constituency

[The students] [like [her lectures]]

square bracket
notation

the students like

her lectures

tree structure
 Trees, hierarchy, and constituency

[The students] [like [her lectures]]

the students like

her lectures

constituent
constituent
 Trees, hierarchy, and constituency

[The students] [like [her lectures]]

the students like

her lectures

constituent
 Substitution
• One of the ways we know a verb is a verb (category) is by
observing that it can substitute for other verbs.
Pat likes to sing. Pat likes to drive.
Pat bought a book. *Pat bought (a) sing.
Pat likes to eat sandwiches.
*Pat unpleasant to eat sandwiches.
• So is eat sandwiches a verb?
• Well, kind of, yes.
• It’s a constituent, a phrase, that has the properties a verb
does. A verb phrase.
 Trees

An abstract tree structure…

A

B C

D E
 Trees
A

B C
The “joints” of the tree are nodes. The
D E nodes here are labeled (with node
labels).
 Trees
A
• The “joints” of the tree are nodes. The
B C nodes here are labeled (with node
labels).
D E • Nodes are connected by branches.
 Trees
• The “joints” of the tree are nodes. The
A
nodes here are labeled (with node
labels).
B C • Nodes are connected by branches.
• The node at the top of the tree (with
D E no branches above it) is called the root
node. A is the root node.
 Trees
A

B C • Nodes with no branches beneath them

are called terminal nodes.
D E • B, D, E are terminal nodes.
 Trees
A
• Nodes with no branches beneath them
B C are called terminal nodes.
• B, D, E are terminal nodes.
D E
• Nodes with branches beneath them are
called nonterminal nodes.
• A, C are nonterminal nodes.
 Tree relations
A

B C • A node X dominates nodes below it

on the tree; these are the nodes
D E which would be pulled along if you
grabbed the node X and pulled it off
of the page.
 Tree relations
A

• A node X dominates nodes below it

B C
C on the tree; these are the nodes
which would be pulled along if you
D E
D E grabbed the node X and pulled it off
of the page.
• C dominates D and E.
 Tree relations
A

B C • Remind you of anything?

C To briefly reconnect with actual
D E language data, it seems as if you do
D E something to C (like pull it off the
page), it affects D and E as a unit.
 Tree relations
• A set of terminal nodes is a
A constituent if they are all dominated
by the same node and no other
B C terminal nodes are dominated by
C that node.
D E • Give an example of a constituent.
D E

• Now give an example of a non-

constituent.
 Tree relations
• A set of terminal nodes is a
A constituent if they are all dominated
by the same node and no other
B C terminal nodes are dominated by
C that node.
D E • Give an example of a constituent.
D E
“D E” is a constituent.

• Now give an example of a non-

constituent.
“B D” is not a constituent.
 Tree relations
A
• A node X immediately dominates a
B C node Y if X dominates Y and is
connected by only one branch.
D E
• For example:
A immediately dominates
B and C.
 Tree relations
A
• A node X immediately dominates a
node Y if X dominates Y and is
B C connected by only one branch.
• A immediately dominates
D E B and C.
• A is also sometimes called the
mother of B and C.
 Tree relations
A
• A node which shares the same
B C mother as a node X is sometimes
called the sister of X.
D E • B is the sister of C.
• C is the sister of B.
• D is the sister of E.
 Exercise

• Study the following tree and state:

(а) the root node
(b) the terminal node(s)
(c) the nodes immediately contained
(dominated) by the root node
(d) the node(s) that immediately
dominate a terminal node
(e) the sister(s) of the nodes in (c)
(f) the sister(s) of the nodes in (d)
Determine the head of the following phrases:

1. She proposed [NP an analysis of the sentence]

2. Jake is [AP so fond of coffee]
3. They are [PP quite in agreement]
4. My sister cycles [AdvP much faster than me]

• Every phrase has one element which it cannot work without –

which element is that?
• Specifiers and complements are optional in the sense that
they appear only if the meaning of the phrase requires it.
Determine the head of the following phrases:

1. She proposed [NP an analysis of the sentence]

2. Jake is [AP so fond of coffee]
3. They are [PP quite in agreement]
4. My sister cycles [AvP much faster than me]

• There appears to be a strong bond between the Head and the

constituent that follows it in each case.
• Complement denotes any constituent whose presence is
required by another element.
 Basic structure of a phrase

XP is a phrase headed by X; what can X stand for?

The Specifier is a sister of the node that dominates the Head
Complement sequence, indicated by ‘?’. What is the nature of this
node? It appears that ‘?’ is at a level that is intermediate between
the phrase level XP and the Head level X. Let us call this level X’
(read: X-bar).
• Such an interpretation wouldn’t account for
the fact that phrases are ordered
hierarchically
• The relationships between the words that
make up a phase are not the same
• Binary-branching is at the core of syntactic
structure (always two elements making the
third)
• Now let’s draw the trees! 
• What are typical specifers for NPs?
determiners
• What are typical specifers for PPs?
adverbs
• What are typical specifers for APs?
degree adverbs
• What are typical specifers for AdvPs?
degree adverbs
• What are typical phrasal complements of Ns?
PPs
• What are typical phrasal complements of Ps?
NPs
PPs
• What are typical phrasal complements of As?
PPs
• What are typical phrasal complements of Advs?
PPs
Introducing X’ theory:
adjuncts
 Adjuncts
• Category B is adjoined to category A:
1. by making B a sister of A and
2. by making A and B daughters of a copy of the
original node A

• We can have adjunction to the right, but also

adjunction to the left.
Basic structure of a phrase - revised
• This model shows how we treat modifiers – when
we add a modifier nothing crucial about the
structure is changed
• Let’s decide if the following are complements or
adjuncts:
1. destroy the garden
2. buy the book on Tuesday
3. word the letter carefully
4. a book with fancy words about London
 What about this phrase?
A BOOK OF POETRY
• Identify the head
• Look carefully at the phrase next to it and say whether it
is a complement or an adjunct
• Are you sure? How do you know?
• What helps us determine whether something is a
complement or an adjunct of an N is the one
replacement test; if it works, what follows is an adjunct
• Also, you can change the order of adjuncts in a phrase –
but you can never change the order of a complement
and an adjunct. Which one comes first?
 Tests for determining the distinction between complements and
adjuncts

• NPs
1. The one-replacement
• The abolition of taxes this year is different from the one last year.
• *The abolition of death penalty is different from the one of life
imprisonment.
• cf. I couldn’t find a book about structural syntax, but I found the
one about generative syntax.
2. Reordering
• *the abolition this year of taxes
• A book about generative syntax with blue covers
• A book with blue covers about generative syntax
 What about this phrase?
WRITE THE REPORT DILIGENTLY
• How many phrases are there in total? Identify
the head.
• Look carefully at the phrase next to it and say
whether it is a complement or an adjunct; and
the next one?
• Are you sure? How do you know?
 Tests for determining the distinction between complements and
adjuncts

• VPs
1. Do-so (minimally replaces the V’ level)
• I wrote the report dilligently, whereas my colleague
did so sloppily.
• *I wrote the report, whereas my colleague did so the
project.
• What do these tests prove?
• They prove that the head and its complement are
very closely related (and our syntactic theory proves
it! They are sisters )
 Let’s draw 

• [NP an analysis of the sentence with tree

diagrams]
• [AP so fond of coffee after dinner]
• [PP quite in agreement about this]
• [AdvP much faster than me by far]
 Syntactic ambiguity

• Explain the ambiguity of the following

expression in terms of the adjunct-head
relation and draw the tree:

• a woman with two daughters with long hair